"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." Orwell

"Men are so simple of mind and so dominated by immediate needs that the deceitful man can easily find those ready to be deceived."
Machiavelli

"The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.." H.L. Mencken

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Bag. Cat. Out.

This video is important in a couple of ways. First, from the outset, you see why there's no left-wing equivalent to right-wing radio: Sam Seder is a smart guy, and very well informed. But he completely lacks the fluency of a guy like Limbaugh or Beck. Left-wing talkers (and how many are there, anyway?) appeal to people willing to listen for the message, and think about it. Takes more work to stay with it.

More importantly, though, is what Joe Scarborough is actually saying: Republican economics in no way benefits people who aren't among the very wealthy. To get enough votes, they have to gin up anger and religious paranoia and blame; and they have to lie, and to get people to deny reality. In other words, for a minute there, Morning Joe let the cat out of the bag.

It still doesn't explain, however, the ease with which they've been able to do it.

For The Sake of My Sanity

Some will know me from my other blog, "Surgeonsblog." Of late I've given over to frothing at the mouth as the world descends into stupidity, and our politics and our citizens seem, in numbers enough to be meaningful, unable to see it. So for now I'm leaving surgery writing behind, if for no other reason than to defuse and diffuse my unrelenting sense of doom, and with no expectation of making a difference. These are things that, to me, are obvious. Except that, apparently, they aren't.

RWS™

RWS™: For those who drop by here in the middle, and wonder what it means: it's my shorthand for Right Wing Screamers, which includes such a long list it's tiresome to type it. (I distinguish these blowhards from thoughtful conservatives, of whom I sort of take it on faith that there must still be some.) You know who I mean: Palin, Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Breitbart (RIP), Malkin, Savage, Levin, Ingraham, Doocey (more of a drooler than a screamer), Hewitt, Goldberg, Gingrich, Kristol, Scarborough (+/-), Bachmann, Inhofe, Bond, Broun, Boehner, Kelley, Santorum, Cain. To name but a few. Behold them in their unrepentant disregard for reality: the RWS™